Check Out the Canon 70D’s Dual Pixel AF Technology In Action

PetaPixel

At the beginning of the week, Canon introduced the latest and greatest addition to its APS-C lineup of DSLRs when it debuted the Canon EOS 70D. In addition to the standard specs you would expect to find in any of Canon’s APS-C cameras (the company has gotten some grief lately regarding its lack of innovation) the 70D packed one very impressive improvement.

The 20.2-megapixel Canon-designed sensor inside features something called “Dual Pixel CMOS AF”: a new autofocus system that promises to vastly improve the speed of Canon’s live view and video AF capabilities. And now, we get to see it in action.

The videos above and below come courtesy of Polish website Optyczne, and in them, they test out the 70D’s Single and Servo AF abilities in live view using both an EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM and EF 100mm f/2.8L IS macro lens. At the top we have the single AF test using the STM lens, below the servo test:

In case you haven’t read our previous coverage, a quick recap might be in order. The new Dual Pixel system works by splitting each of the pixels on the new 20.2MP sensor into two photodiodes. The sensor can then use those photodiodes together for taking pictures, or analyze their data separately when it comes time to autofocus.

The result is much faster live view and video autofocus than we’ve seen from Canon in the past. Here are the two tests using the 100mm macro lens:

As you can see, the system works as advertised: fast. It’s not on par with the 19-point all cross-type system the 70D boasts when using the viewfinder, but when it comes to live view and video autofocus, the speed improvement goes beyond “noticeable” and crosses into “impressive” territory.